The Hall effect, named after the American physicist Edward Herbert Hall (1855-1938), occurs whenever a magnetic field perpendicular to an electric current is present. In this case, the magnetic field generates a potential difference, referred to as a Hall potential, in a direction perpendicular both to the direction of the magnetic field and to the direction of the current. By measuring the Hall potential, it is possible to determine the magnitude of the respective components of the magnetic field.
A Hall sensor provided for measuring a Hall voltage can be realized as a semiconductor component. An evaluation circuit, which can be produced in a CMOS process, for example, can also be integrated into the semiconductor component. If such a semiconductor Hall sensor is formed with electrically conductive layers parallel to the upper side of a semiconductor body, a Hall voltage can only be measured with it if the magnetic field is oriented perpendicular to the upper side. If components of the magnetic field inside the plane of the upper side of the component are also to be detected by the sensor, circuit boards must be arranged perpendicular to this upper side.
In the publication by R. S. Popović: “The Vertical Hall-Effect Device,” IEEE Electron Device Letters EDL-5 (1984), pp. 357 and 358, a vertical Hall sensor is described in which an arrangement of terminal contacts is present on the upper side of the chip.
WO 2007/0121885 A1 describes a vertical Hall sensor in which a conductive semiconductor area extends into a substrate. A plurality of contacts is situated on an upper side, and barrier regions extend between neighboring contacts into the semiconductor area. The barrier regions are provided in order to keep operating current flowing through the substrate at a distance away from the upper side.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,255,190 B1 describes a method for manufacturing very deep pn-junctions by means of deep trenches, in the side walls of which a dopant is implanted. The vertical circuit boards produced in this way can be used as components of a Hall sensor and are correspondingly connected electrically